The Word of mAn[S]o0r

This year, since family is in Islamabad, we took a different direction from our traditional Eid day, and decided to do something funky. Thats when Eid in murree came up as a viable idea!

I

My dad had booked a hut in Murree for the second day of Eid (which at the time, was wednesday). Since Eid fell on wednesday, we thought why not, and headed there anyway. In retrospect, it was a *very* good decision! This is one of the things i like about Islamabad! Hill resorts such as murree and bhurban are very close and all it takes to head out is a couple of hours of planning for an overnight stay.
Being Eid, most of the roads were empty, which suited us just fine. A lot of the shops were also closed therefore, we prepared ahead and took all things we thought were necessary from home. But ofcourse, no matter how much we prepared, there were still somethings which we forgot to take, and had to search for on the way. These included mobile cards and medicines.

II

The way was absolutely lovely! A bit sunny, which my mom was not at all in favour of, but the greenery and the peace made up for it. Our car started giving us some problems at the beginning, heating up every little while later, which we later attributed to the AC being on. As soon as we rolled down the windows, it started behaving and the rest of the way was pretty uneventful.

III

Arriving in Murree was a shock! Never in our recent trips (me once, mom five times, dad countless, brother three) had we ever seen it so deserted! 98% of the shops were closed, hotels were empty, and traffic pretty much consisted of us and two more cars! Talk about peace and serenity. We made our way to the rooms dad had booked, which was the naval lodge at murree located at Pindi Point. As soon as we arrived, i was blown away by the view! it was amazing! Pindi point is the highest peak in the surrounding areas, and the lodge was at the very edge of it. Plus, by the time we reached there, the clouds had started building up and that made it all the more breathtaking. These are two things i really appreciate about nature, being from karachi. 1) mountains 2)greenery.

After settling in, we decided to take a walk upto mall road and check out the market situation there. Mall road was located about a kilometer away and given our slow pace, it took us a good 40 minutes to get there. But it was fun all the way!

IV

Mall road was not as deserted as we had thought, and thankfully, we werent the only ’sir phiras’ as my dad put it, to be in murree on Eid day. We found quite a few places open, including White Onion, Red Onion and Lahore Broast. Since we were already there, and it was tea time, we sat down in white onion and ordered tea and chips. Our order arrived 30 minutes later, and cost us just around Rs. 300!! (Murree is not cheap either).

Then came the dreaded part.. the walk back! It was getting dark (we had overstayed at the WO) and almost deserted. Thankgod there were four of us. My mother started feeling very cold on the way back, even after a shawl, a jacket and a sweater. I loaned her my sweater then, and enjoyed the cold nipping all over my body on the way back. It was an eye opener at the very least.

The way i described it seems like it was about 10 or 11 when we made our way back, and even we thought so. Thats why we were in for a shock, that when we reached back.. it was just 6:30!!

V

Since 6:30 was not a respectable time to turn in, nor was there anything good on TV, we took the car and headed back to Mall road. This time, got ourselves seated at the Red Onion and ordered dinner. For the first time in my life, i saw someone pay 1000 for four soups, a plate of biryani and half chicken handi! OMG! is murree expensive or what! After dinner, a little walk up and down mall road for mood elevation, and an expresso culminated our dinner experience. The way back was uneventful, and we turned in soon after. But before sleeping, i made it a point to go and take in the night light view of the mountainside and true to my expectations, it was BREATHTAKING!! I stayed outside for as long as my fingers would allow, then had to come back inside. (I had stopped feeling them).

VI

Sunrise!!!!! For the first time in my life was i ever so excited about seeing a sunrise! I expected it to be awesome, and somehow woke up at 5:30 in the morning (i suspect food the night before had a big part to play in it, but alls well that ends well). The sunrise wasnt as exciting however, since it was all cloudy, but the transformation from night to day was enough to cover any feelings of dissapointment i may have had. At 6:30 i came back inside and crawled into the comforting warmth of my blanket to catch up on some much needed sleep.

VII

The next day was bhurban day! Woke up at 10, had breakfast of egg and toast, and packed up to leave. The drive to bhurban was great! The whole scene always reminds me of the pathways in UK, when i went there as a child. Arriving at PC Bhurban at 12 AM, we had ample time to roam about taking in the weather before settling down for lunch. We decided to take the hiking path they’ve built, and for some unknown reason, started from the wrong side. They’ve built it in such a way, that when you start, there’s quite a steep drop after which it slowly levels out and rises upwards. That way, you dont feel too tired when you finish. The way we started from, the steep decline became the steep INcline and in no time were we gasping for breath! Joking around and being crazy saved the day and the whole experience became one of my most treasured memories (the whole trip is a treasured memory, but this is a special time inside it). Food was at Terrace Cafe! Being the one to try out new things, i went for the Hawain Burger, which was a chicken burger with a piece of pine-apple. It was delicious! (fq.. you’d like it! it had the sweet infusion on the otherwise spicy burger). During lunch it started raining and since we were on the terrace, we were granted with an amazing view! There’s really something else about the sounds of raindrops as they patter away on the roof overhead.

VIII

From there on out, we planned our exit so as to reach Islamabad around maghrib. Exited bhurban at 3, came driving down and took the newly constructed murree highway back. At the time however, we thought we were lost, since the whole scene was pretty much new to us and we couldnt recall any of the roadside stalls. Thats when a little panic started to settle in, but since we could see signs giving the distance from Islamabad, we kept on going. Just halfway though, we encountered a hailstorm!! This was the first hailstorm of my life and it was awesome! Truly coming face to face with the might of the heavens is enough to humble a person! Thank god my father retained control of the car and we made it back safely. On the way, i saw no less than three cars which were smashed into the siderails, ditches or the mountainwall.

IX

That concluded my two day Eid trip to murree! If there were words to describe it, they would be truly amazing. I never thought spending Eid on vacation would be this much fun! Being away from the extended family does have its advantages, though as a friend rightly pointed out, it does rob us of the pleasures of collecting Eidi!

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